2019 Golden Boot Awards: Vote Now for the Year’s Most Unforgettable Moment

Welcome to the sixth annual Golden Boot Awards! The Boot’s fan-voted digital awards, the Golden Boot Awards feature 10 categories of staff-selected nominees who made waves in the country music world in 2019. Readers can vote for their preferred winner in each category as often as once per hour through 11:59PM ET on Jan. 23. We’ll announce the winners on the site on Jan. 24.

When Kacey Musgraves swept the Grammy Awards categories in which she was nominated last February, winning Best Country Album, Best Country Song, Best Country Solo Performance and Album of the Year, she kicked off what would become one of the biggest years country music has ever seen. The genre shot into the mainstream orbit with that win for Album of the Year and continued to reach new audiences with the viral song “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ megahit that topped the charts for weeks on end.

The Highwomen, the brainchild of Amanda Shires, formed and released their debut album, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart. The supergroup, also featuring Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby, made their live debut at the Newport Folk Festival last summer, an event that also featured a surprise appearance from Dolly Parton.

Miranda Lambert shocked and delighted fans when she announced in February that she secretly got married to New York City police officer Brendan McLoughlin. Near the end of the year, Jennifer Nettles made headlines with her CMA Awards outfit, a hot pink cape advocating for equal play for women on country radio.

Ken Burns’ epic docuseries Country Music gave country fans eight entertaining two-hour episodes chronicling the history of the genre from Fiddlin’ John Carson to Garth Brooks, who, in November, was crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year for the third time in four years, outraging Carrie Underwood and Eric Church fans hoping for a new winner. Underwood was the only woman nominated for the award, a title last won by a woman in 2011.

Keith Urban endeared himself to fans, and the internet as a whole, when looking genuinely shocked that he won the ACM for Entertainer of the Year in April. It was his first time taking home the prize. A few months later, in a somber, yet inspiring moment at the CMT Artists of the Year ceremony, Thomas Rhett asked the audience to pray with him for his fellow honoree Kane Brown, whose drummer, Kenny Dixon, had died in a car crash a few days earlier.

What was 2019’s most unforgettable moment? Cast your vote below!

This story was written by Caitlin Tremblay.